About Zarina Bhimji

Mining the fraught history of her own background—born to Indian parents in Uganda, from which her family was expelled—Zarina Bhimji produces lush, poetic films and photographs focused on the complex history of India and East Africa. Though her work is underpinned by extensive research into the sites and situations upon which she focuses, she prefers ambiguity to facts. As she describes: “My work is not about the actual facts but about the echo they create, the marks, the gestures and the sound.” She finds these traces in the architecture, landscapes, and ambient noises of the places she shoots, capturing them in scenes that foreground their beauty and emotional resonance, while hinting at their layered pasts. Bhimji’s best-known works are two films, Out of the Blue (2002) and Yellow Patch (2011), sumptuous visual journeys across Uganda and India.